The Ashmolean…

Museum of Art and Archaeology, University of Oxford. Website here. Founded in 1683, open Tuesday to Sunday, and Bank Holiday Mondays, 10am–5pm.

Admission is free but there are buckets by the door.

What a splendid place. The Ashmolean is in receipt of The Cardinal Wolsey Seal of Approval (not a real seal, just bags of approval).

With one exception (more of that later) it is a grown-up space and has successfully resisted the social tsunami of baby-friendly plastic bouncy nonsense. It is a proper museum, stuffed to the gunwales with lovely stuff that we’ve nicked over the years.

Chief among this “the stuff”, for me at least, and constituting the basis of a quasi-spiritual pilgrimage, is what may plausibly be described as Mr Guy Fawkes’ lantern, the one that came oh so close, so very close to giving Parliament the kick up the Arsenal Villa that it needs more than ever today.